Pune: With series win up for the grabs, India would look to continue their dominance over England as the two sides meet in the second ODI at the MCA Stadium, Pune on Friday (March 26).
India’s bowlers proved their mettle defending the total in the first ODI despite an onslaught from the England openers. Prasidh Krishna on his debut took four although proved a bit expensive. However, Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s resilient bowling after his return has boosted the Men in Blue very much against a strong English batting lineup.
Suryakumar Yadav after his swashbuckling arrival in T20’s can make his ODI debut as well with Shreyas Iyer ruled out due to a shoulder injury. Shubman Gill might walk into the side for that opening slot after Rohit Sharma had a blow to his elbow in the last match. The pace trio of Krishna, Kumar and Shardul Thakur is likely to be unchanged.
As for England, the game will be a do-or-die one for them to stay alive in the contest. They lost both the Test and T20I series and will be hoping to change their fortunes. The duo of Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy ran havoc in the last game and were railing towards chasing down a target of 300.
However, losing wickets in crucial moments proved to be costly for them. Also, their middle-order hasn’t lived up to its potential and the likes of all-rounder Ben Stokes, skipper Eoin Morgan and Moeen Ali all struggled with the bat.
The trio needs to fire if England want to give themselves an edge over the hosts. The spinners too haven’t really been able to test the Indian batters going wicket-less in the opening game. However, their pace consisting of the Curran brothers — Sam and Tom and Mark Wood will look to deliver troubling the batters with his speed and precision.
